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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Arawak of Suriname

The Arawak of Suriname, numbering approximately 3,300 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as an indigenous Arawakan-speaking people of northern South America whose traditional territories extend across Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela They are an Indigenous people, with Arawak (Lokono) as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the South American Indigenous people cluster of the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Dutch is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Arawak

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Suriname
People Cluster: South American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Dutch (nld)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 3,300
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG016424
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Pray for the Arawak of Suriname

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Dutch
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Dutch Speakers

Media Resources in Dutch:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
MagdalenaView Film

4 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Dutch:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1750 Dutch Staten Vertaling Bible✓
Herziene Statenvertaling (HSV)✓✓✓
Het Boek✓
New Dutch Translation (de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling)✓

4 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Dutch bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Arawak:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Arawak of Suriname

For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
readPsalm 47:7

Pray for those who live for idols that will never satisfy their hearts, asking that someone will tell them that God is the King of all the earth so that they will turn to Him in repentance and praise.

Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia."
readRomans 16:5

Pray for houses to be meeting places for Christians and that God will advance the gospel and grow His Church through natural familial and community relationships.

Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
readPsalm 25:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember the merciful nature and steadfast love of God as they walk with Him daily.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
readIsaiah 43:19

Praise the God who is able to make a way forward, even when it seems impossible. Ask Him to do a new thing among this people group specifically and among the nations, raising up believers to go and share the gospel with individuals and places where it has not flourished before.

Arawak Across Countries (ROP3 - 100472) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress Index ▼LanguageReligion
ArawakPG047233ArawakUnited States3,600No Longer UnreachedEnglishProtestantism
ArawakPG016456ArawakVenezuela425No Longer UnreachedSpanishEthnoreligion
ArawakPG016353ArawakGuyana15,000No Longer UnreachedGuyanese Creole EnglishEthnoreligion
ArawakPG016328ArawakFrench Guiana1,000No Longer UnreachedArawakEthnoreligion
ArawakPG016424ArawakSuriname3,300Unengaged and UnreachedDutchEthnoreligion

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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